Welcome to Martha's Garden

Living and growing up “in town” doesn’t exactly expose you to the farm life. Luckily for me, I had grandparents who ran a farm for many years. Unfortunately, they had to move to the city in order to provide financial support for their growing family. I have a lot of memories as a child spending time with my grandparents. I remember having many conversations with my grandmother about raising livestock, managing a 1 acre vegetable garden, and processing thier own food. Grandma had a trick for everything. I believe these conversations were little seeds, planted deep in the soil, that would eventually sprout into a passion for growing as I became an adult.  This passion started with growing basics like tomatoes, peppers, and sugar snap peas. As my passion continued to grow, so did my aspirations. 

Fast forward several years. Heather and I decided it was time for us to own a farm. We had many conversations on how to accomplish this goal.  We read, and researched, asked lots of questions, and eventually settled on purchasing tillable in the Quad City area.  We started this crazy endeavor with planting 12 lavender plants in our vegetable garden, as an experiment.  The plants did fantastic, so we decided to up the ante. I tilled up a space in our backyard and planted 200 lavender plants. These also did fantastic. It’s been 4 years since we planted our first lavender plant, and we now have over 1200 plants. Little did I know, having all those conversations with grandma (Martha) as a kid, would lead to this.  

Our lavender grows on 1 acre, surrounded by 18 acres of good quality farm ground. Our starter plants are ordered from a supplier located in Washington. All our English lavender species are tested and proven to survive in Zone 5. We use commercial weed fabric / control for the lavender rows, with grass planted in between the rows. We do not treat our lavender with any chemicals or supplements. The plants are hand watered when rain water is not enough.  We maintain a minimum 50’ buffer between the lavender and the commercially grown corn/soy beans. Fresh lavender is harvested by hand.